This is me with dogs. The photo was taken in Rajsko near Cracow in 1918.
I was born on 24th June 1917. My mother had no milk, so I had a wet-nurse - it was our neighbor, Mrs. Rokoszowa. I was friends with her son Tadek, who was my milk brother, throughout childhood.
When I was a few years old my mother left us. She met some Pole - Wladyslaw Seweryn and married him. When she left I walked her with my grandparents to the tram stop. I stayed behind as she didn't take me with her. She later changed her name to Elzbieta. Her husband worked on construction sites, she had a stall on the Maly Rynek market square. He didn't want to keep in touch with our family. They had children, but I never met them.
I grew up with my grandparents, Jakob and Felicja Kraus. My grandparents didn't have much time - they had their problems and their own affairs. I helped my grandfather in the shop. I remember he used to say, 'Do this, do that, wash the floor, clean up.' But my grandmother she had a gentler, caring approach, 'Come and have some dinner, have some lunch and breakfast.' My mother used to visit us sometimes.
